C&F Financial (NASDAQ:CFFI) versus United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI) Head to Head Analysis

United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI – Get Rating) and C&F Financial (NASDAQ:CFFI – Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Profitability

This table compares United Community Banks and C&F Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Community Banks	27.77%	11.48%	1.25%
C&F Financial	22.17%	14.41%	1.19%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for United Community Banks and C&F Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Community Banks	0	2	3	0	2.60
C&F Financial	0	0	0	0	N/A

United Community Banks currently has a consensus target price of $31.80, suggesting a potential upside of 47.43%. Given United Community Banks’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe United Community Banks is more favorable than C&F Financial.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares United Community Banks and C&F Financial’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Community Banks	$906.19 million	2.74	$277.47 million	$2.61	8.26
C&F Financial	$125.70 million	1.35	$29.16 million	$8.59	5.76

United Community Banks has higher revenue and earnings than C&F Financial. C&F Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Community Banks, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.4% of United Community Banks shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.0% of C&F Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of United Community Banks shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of C&F Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

United Community Banks has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, C&F Financial has a beta of 0.28, suggesting that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

United Community Banks pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. C&F Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. United Community Banks pays out 35.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. C&F Financial pays out 20.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. United Community Banks has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years and C&F Financial has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. United Community Banks is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

United Community Banks beats C&F Financial on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Community Banks

(Get Rating)

United Community Banks, Inc. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of consumer and business banking services. The firm caters to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses. It offers checking, savings, mortgages, borrowing, digital baking, credit cards, and investing services. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Blairsville, GA.

About C&F Financial

(Get Rating)

C&F Financial Corp. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals and businesses. It operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Mortgage Banking and Consumer Finance. The Community Banking segment provides checking and savings deposit accounts, business, real estate, development, mortgage, home equity, and installment loans. The Mortgage Banking segment offers ancillary mortgage loan origination services for loan settlement and residential appraisals. The Consumer Finance segment consists of automobile financing through lending programs that are designed to serve customers in the non-prime market who have limited access to traditional automobile financing. The company was founded on March 8, 1994 and is headquartered in Toano, VA.